An integration of activities such as incubators, technology transfer, student and alumni organisations etc related to entrepreneurship education is seen as promoting economic development and innovativeness in many parts of the world. This way of creating systems for entrepreneurship development has also recently been focused in Sweden. As a result of Swedish Government's ambition to stimulate growth economy, university entrepreneurship education program spring up all over the country in order to promote students' entrepreneurship.From previous research we know that the infrastructure has an impact for entrepreneurship (Delatte & Baytos, 1993; Hannon, 2003; Rosa & Dawson, 2006, Xu, 2010). The structure relates to the number of individuals in the management structure and the role the individual has in the management structure such as member of the board or manager. It also refers to characteristics of the individuals involved in the management such as diversity, gender, age, education competence and previous experience (Rosa & Dawson, 2006). Further, it has been shown that managers are important since a lack of role models have been shown to have an impact for both female entrepreneurs and female managers in decisions of starting and/or managing a business (Crampton & Mishra, 1999; Mattis, 2004). However, public and private initiatives aimed to support business development usually are following a gender blind norm both in the way it is presented, for example regarding language and psychological accessibility, and considering the fields pointed out. Research shows that women don't feel themselves addressed by these initiatives or that it concerns them (NUTEK, 2001; NUTEK, R 2007:34).Swedish Government recently challenged to higher education institutions to apply for finance to a development towards world- class standard in educational programmes in entrepreneurship and innovation (Prop. 2008/2009:1/16). The invitation was directed to higher education institutions that already run advanced studies in entrepreneurship and innovation and that also have a strong connection to research in the same area. Swedish National Agency for Higher Education was commissioned by the Government to examine the applications and invited a panel of international academic experts to asses the applications. Eleven applications were submitted from higher education institutions in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation. Four of the eleven institutions which applied where recommended by the panel of experts and these institutions were further ranked and recommended by Swedish National Agency for Higher Education to the University Chancellor. Two of these institutions were finally selected to be financed by the Swedish Government.This paper focuses on these eleven applications and the review process. The aim of the paper is to analyze and illustrate in what way the applications as well as the review process is gendered for example in terms of discourse and symbols in relation to educational setting, organizational structure, infrastructure, education management, education team assigned and branches of industry (Acker, 1992; Bruni, Gherardi & Poggio, 2005; Gunnarsson, Westberg, Andersson & Balkmar, 2007). We expect to find how gender is mirrored in these highly ranked applications and what impact the presence or absence of a gender focus will have for entrepreneurship and innovation education.

This paper seeks to explore if there is an indication of a structural “glass ceiling” hindering women within business support environments. By analyzing 44 Swedish incubators’ web sites from four different perspectives, the study wants to describe and discuss the particular way gender seem to be structured in incubators’ organisations. The results reveal that there is a male dominance in the incubators’ organisations. The criteria for becoming an entrepreneur in the incubator such as characteristics are subtle. It can be assumed that hidden gender structures can prevent female entrepreneurs from entering the incubator.

Public programs and measures aimed to support business, innovation and entrepreneurship in Sweden are by tradition targeted manufacturing companies in order to develop technology and to make industry more competitive. Such initiatives are following a gender blind norm, in the way they define their fields of action, and also in how they are presented, for example regarding language and psychological accessibility. Research shows that women don‟t feel themselves addressed by these initiatives or that it concerns their companies.

We think that a deeper understanding about why women are not reached, or attracted, by official measures taken to support business growth, can guide us in developing new models, methods and tools to stimulate and facilitate a climate for growth of women‟s entrepreneurship and long-term improve the conditions for women to create, run and develop their enterprises. We exemplify this through cases from three national R&D programmes financed by VINNOVA (The Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) and KK-Stiftelsen (the Swedish Knowledge Foundation), both governmental authorities and research funders that aims to promote growth and prosperity throughout Sweden.

In the paper we discuss official efforts aimed to support business development and growth. In what way are they gender marked? What structures are active on different levels? What is the consistence between ambitions from the program managers and how presentation of the programs is received by the target groups? Who are reached and who participates?

Because the business model is a fairly new concept, research is lacking on business model innovation in certain industry sectors. One such sector is the agri-food sector. Using a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1990 to 2014, this paper examines the where, when, and how of the use of business models and business model innovation in the agri-food sector.

Design/methodology/approach

A web-based search was conducted to identify peer-reviewed journal articles that contained a combination of “business model” or “business model innovation” with agriculture-related and food-related terms (e.g., “agri-food sector”). After winnowing out irrelevant and duplicate articles, 505 articles were chosen for analysis.

Findings

Using categories, the paper analyses various data about the selected articles. The categories include research settings, units of analysis, methodologies, and theories. Based on this analysis, the paper finds that these agri-food sector articles are primarily qualitative, empirical studies that focus on one or a few companies (i.e., case studies). The paper also finds that theory is not yet well developed in the research on the agri-food sector.

Entrepreneurs in newly started businesses need to think of communication in a strategic way since they lack a “track record” and suffer from liability of newness. The aim of this paper is to capture entrepreneurs´ communicative skills using a framework of leadership theories focused on the dimensions (i) other-orientation, (ii) openness and (iii)adaptation. The data is collected through structural observations “shadowing” five entrepreneurs in Sweden. The findings show that the entrepreneurs are both oriented toward others and open to input from them. They often adapt to the situation and act in accordance with the co-actor’s interest. However, they also withhold their standpoint when they find it necessary. The entrepreneurs with highgrowth orientation were those that showed the most frequent other-oriented and opened behaviour during the observations. They were also adaptive in their communication with different counterparts.

Purpose – The aim of this study is to test the assumption that ability to handle communication and iability of newness (LoN) is enhanced by academic entrepreneurship education and/or previous start-upexperience.

Design/methodology/approach – The data collection includes a questionnaire with a total sample of 392 responding entrepreneurs in Sweden. Statistical analyses are made between entrepreneurs with academic entrepreneurship education respectively previous start-up experience. Findings – The findings show that entrepreneurs with experience from entrepreneurship education report more developed communicative skills in the dimensions of openness as well as adaptation, whereas the dimension of other-orientation is found to be learned by previous start-up experience. When it comes to perceived problems related to LoN the differences between the groups were not as strong as assumed. However, the differences observed imply that also for handling LoN the authors identify a combined effect of possessing start-up experience as well as experience from entrepreneurship education. Consequently, entrepreneurs with experience from both, show in total the most elaborated skills.

Practical implications – One way to improve future entrepreneurship educations is to make students more aware of the mutual profit in a business agreement and how to communicate this in a marketing situation. Another suggestion is to include starting business as a course work.

Originality/value – This study not only meets the call for actual outcome from entrepreneurship educations in terms of changed behaviour but also for interdisciplinary research in the entrepreneurship field in integrating leadership research with focus on communication.

The aim of this paper is to describe the extent and content of information regarding incubator management structure, selection, support and network mediation on Swedish incubators websites and analyse connections between different incubator management structure and the content of incubator best practice. The data is based on information reported on 44 incubator websites in Sweden processed within the SPSS system. The findings show that incubators with more male representation in board and coach/advisor personnel report a more active part in business support including network mediation.

The aim of this paper is to describe the extent and content of information regarding incubator management structure, selection, support and network mediation on Swedish incubators websites and analyse connections between how different incubator management structure have an impact on the content of incubator best practice. The data is based on information reported on 44 incubator websites in Sweden processed within the SPSS system. The findings show that incubators with more male representation in board and coach/advisor personnel report a more active part in business support including network mediation.

This conceptual paper focuses on the need for knowledge in leadership, organization and innovative thinking that exist in primary production throughout the value chain from the farm to the final consumer. There are also needs in terms of improving and developing the entire value chain from the farm to the final consumer. Self-leadership and lean innovation is in this paper proposed to enhance the possibilities for business model innovation in the food production. The aims of the paper are two folded; Firstly, the aim is to present a framework containing self-leadership and lean innovation and how these theoretical approaches can facilitate and shape business model innovation in the agricultural sector. Secondly, the aim is to show a way of working with this problem area in order to meet these needs in the agricultural sector. A framework for business model innovation is presented as well as an interactive research design addressing the problem area in terms of action research in which learning networks is an important concept. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research challenges.